Conventional typewriter keyboards require a typist to type individual letters one at a time, and one after another in the correct order. The present invention does away with the necessity of typing letters one by one, and one after the other.
The arrangement of the letters of the conventional QWERTY keyboard (so-named for the first six letters of the upper key row) is designed to avoid striking more than one letter key simultaneously. The typist has to move his or her hands and fingers constantly around the keyboard. Touch typing with ten fingers is rather difficult to learn. According to some sources, in a day's work a typist's fingers may travel 12 to 20 miles. Typing at the speed of human speech is virtually impossible with a conventional QWERTY keyboard.
In the past, various shorthand machines have been used to produce an output sufficiently fast to follow speech. One such machine is commonly referred to in the art as a stenotype machine. See U.S. Pat. No. 2,319,273, issued to Sterling. However, input and output to such devices could only be made by trained specialists. The output was typically produced on a paper tape that is unreadable and illegible to a layman. The paper tape contained an output which was in the form of special stenographic codes or phonetic symbols. An example of this kind of a paper tape output is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,449,126, issued to Kirkpatrick, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,927, issued to Wright. The paper tape had to be transcribed and retyped using a conventional QWERTY keyboard typewriter to produce written text in a standard format. Transcription was oftentimes a time consuming process. A person specially trained in the stenographic codes or phonetic symbols would have to read the codes and symbols on the paper tape. The codes and symbols would then have to be retyped in standard format using a conventional typewriter. This is the method typically used, for example, by court reporters to transcribe testimony.
Thus, in the past, the production of written text in standard format based upon human speech involved a slow two step process. First, a specially trained stenographer produced a paper tape of special codes and symbols. Second, the paper tape was then retyped into written text in a standard format.
The deficiencies of the conventional QWERTY keyboard have been recognized. Other keyboard arrangements have been proposed, but have not been generally accepted.
A keyboard similar to the keyboard used with the present invention is shown in Dutch patent application No. 73.06584. But the device disclosed in Dutch patent application No. 73.06584 still produced an output in the form of a specially coded shorthand script. The script produced by such a device printed each syllable separately on a narrow roll of paper. Each syllable was printed underneath the previous one. That device did not produce written text in a standard format. The output had to be transcribed afterwards by a trained operator because a lot of special codes had to be used.
The keyboard shown in that Dutch patent application had keys for only some consonants. Other consonants were missing from the keyboard. If a typist wished to type a consonant that was missing from the keyboard, two or more keys would have to be pressed simultaneously to indicate the missing consonants. But, missing consonants would be printed in a shorthand form or code. In this case, a code was used to resemble the form of the letters on the keys. Consonants missing from the keyboard would not be printed in a standard format.
On the device shown in Dutch patent application No. 73.06584, signs or punctuation marks and digits could only be displayed by simultaneously striking a letter key and a so-called indicator key each time. The signs and punctuation marks, placed on the left group and right group of consonants, respectively, were displayed by additionally striking the left and right key, respectively of two additional thumb keys which were provided with the accentuations " " and " ". Each sign or punctuation mark is displayed by the printed combination of the letter of the key carrying the desired sign and an accentuation. A fixed indicator key, for example, the "i", had to be used for the digits 0 through 9. Digits each time were displayed in a code by the printed combination of the letter of the key carrying the desired digit and the letter "i".
When keys were pressed simultaneously in that device, the letters were printed on paper tape in the order in which the letters appeared on the keyboard, reading from left to right. The keys were not decoded or sorted according to any priority rules or decoding rules.
Thus, the output of the device shown in Dutch patent application No. 73.06584 was not in standard format, but rather was in the form of a special code. In order to obtain written text in a standard format, the output would have to be retyped by a conventional QWERTY typewriter. In this respect, it was just as unsatisfactory as old shorthand machines.
A further discussion of the prior art as contrasted with the present invention is contained in a brochure entitled "Velotype--machineschrijven op spreeksnelheid--typing at the speed of speech", by Special Systems Industry bv, Delftweg 72, 2289 BA Rijswijk, the Netherlands, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention obviates these problems and provides a word typewriter which produces written text in standard format in a very fast manner. The present invention can produce a running and complete script at the speed of human speech. In sharp contrast to conventional shorthand machines, the script does not need to be retyped. Consonants which are missing from the keyboard of the present invention are displayed or printed in standard format. Also signs or digits are displayed or printed in standard format. In other words, the present invention can produce a script identical to that of a conventional QWERTY keyboard typewriter, but at the speed of speech.